Iran's elite Revolutionary Guards on Monday test-fired the country's two-stage long-range Sejil missiles, the Fars news agency and English-language Press TV channel reported.
Tehran claims the weapon can hit targets 1,240 miles away, meaning Israel, most Arab states and parts of southern Europe - including much of Turkey - lie within its range.
The missile is also theoretically capable of carrying a nuclear warhead, although Teheran is believed not to have the capacity to produce such warheads for now.
The missile launch takes plays on the eve of Thursday's meeting in Geneva, where the US, Britain, France, Russia, China and Germany will meet with Iran over the country's nuclear programme, which Teheran says is peaceful.
After meeting US President Barack Obama in Pittsburgh last week, his Russian counterpart Dmitry Medvedev signalled for the first time that Moscow might agree to stiffer economic sanctions against Tehran. Until now, Russia, which is one of Iran's major trading partners, said that sanctions against the Islamic Republic could be counterproductive.
According to press reports, the USA's first choice for sanctions against Iran is a ban on exports of all petroleum products to the Islamic Republic. Although it holds huge oil reserves, Iran lacks refineries and imports 40% of the fuel it consumes.
Energy considerations
Until now, China, which is dependent on Iranian oil, has firmly opposed sanctions. China is the world's second-biggest oil consumer after the US and imports of Iranian crude for now satisfy 15% of its growing needs.
Turkey is another regional player to oppose sanctions against Teheran.
Speaking in New York over the weekend, Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan urged caution over fresh sanctions against Iran for its controversial nuclear programme, warning that any military attack against Iran would be an act of "insanity".
Turkey is currently a member of the 15-nation Security Council, which has already passed three rounds of sanctions on Iranian firms and individuals designed to induce Teheran to halt uranium enrichment aimed at producing nuclear fuel.
Erdogan said he would like Iranian gas to flow through the Nabucco pipeline project. "Sanctioning Iranian natural gas would mean that Nabucco will come to a dead end," he said, quoted by the daily Hurriyet.
Days ago, former German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder, who now holds an executive post in the Gazprom-favoured Nord Stream gas pipeline consortium, also said that EU-favoured Nabucco would be viable only with gas from Iran.
Israel ready for military action
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu warned at the United Nations last week that "the most urgent challenge facing this body is to prevent the tyrants of Teheran from acquiring nuclear weapons".
Israel's political and military leaders have long made it clear that they are considering taking decisive military action if Iran continues to develop its nuclear programme.
However, according to Anthony H. Cordesman from the Centre for Strategic and International studies, it is far from certain that such action would be met with success. An Israeli strike on Iran would be far more challenging than the Israeli strike that destroyed Iraq's Osirak reactor in 1981, argues Cordesman in an analysis published in the Wall Street Journal.
